A Cottage by the Sea - On My Mind

Thoughts and prayers again

11/27/2021

I’m considering keeping the ‘thoughts and prayers’ theme in the title of my writing project, but with a subtle shift to the first person: I’ll Keep You in My Thoughts and Prayers. I don’t want to give in to the political considerations of the phrase because for many they speak it from the heart and from their deep desire to show compassion. Caring people want to discern what it might mean when they think or pray about another. They know they are onto something meaningful and powerful. For sure I do. If hearing what others believe helps me, I figure it probably helps others.
In that light, I plan to gather together what what men and women through the ages have written on the subject.

Writing project title

11/20/2021

Well, so much for Keep Me in Your Thoughts and Prayers as the working title for my writing project. The phrase seemed inclusive to me until I googled it . Not inclusive! Completely political! I’m sure some people use it seriously, taking it at face value, thinking and praying for others. But in the political arena it can be code for avoiding action. For example someone says they care about people effected by gun shootings, but then does nothing to mitigate the situation. For my purposes it is a throw away comment in the same category as ‘have a nice day.’
My writing project is still a go, but discerning the title is a work in progress. Each book I have written began with an idea, and then I started writing. The title came forth early in the writing from a variety of sources: Joyful Learning was the phrase of my mentor, Don Holdaway; my editor started referring to The Teacher Book and For Reading Out Loud; Thinking and Learning Together was from the mouths of my first grade students; Shared Reading was never in question; and Very Grateful, from my mom, who used that phrase often, and led her life with gratitude.

New writing project

11/17/2021

I’m about to start my newest writing project. Don’t know how it will evolve, what format it might take, who might read it… Maybe it will go no further than a blog post. If it takes a publishable form, most likely I’ll do it myself, using the features of Microsoft Word or Pages (which comes with this computer). I’m thinking, pamphlet form because publishing a book is a huge undertaking. I know that. I’m into easy and speed. So my goal is to create some kind of finished product by the end of 2021.
Working title: Keep Me in Your Thoughts and Prayers. Stay tuned. Hmm, I hope I can carry out my part of the bargain and give you something to stay tuned to! Hmm, that promise may help me get going and keep going.

I'm a project person. Are you?

11/15/2021

Florence, Autumn 2019

I’m a project person. We all have projects going, but as a project person I view everything I do as a project, My life is a project! When events and situations arise, they become projects. As a kid I was always creating projects. My bedroom (and closet) was full of them. Projects became the invisible framework for the way I led my life.
   I’ve never discussed the term project person with anyone, much less read about the every day mental process that a project person personally goes through. I might see a final project or read about some of the process that went into it, but that’s not what I’m considering as I write this. I’m trying to unravel how process people craft and live their lives. All I have is myself as a model. In fact, I’m making this all up as I write. Ah, a writing project. Thought and language.
As a project person I notice that I don’t lead a haphazard, random, unthought out, or disconnected life. My project start with my morning routine, and continues as I visit church people, send emails, write this blog, read, do a jigsaw puzzle, and prepare dinner—all under the rubric of daily routine. These daily routine projects, however, aren’t enough to keep me from feeling in disarray, purposeless, or bored. I need to produce a tangible project that others can benefit from, that can make a positive difference to people beyond my circle of friends and acquaintance.
   Which lead me to a current project idea that is moving around in my mind, body, spirit. A writing project, which doesn’t surprise me, for writing is often what I turn toward. I’m going to post this and get writing.
   P.S. My best writing place, need I remind you, is in Florence.

Journey not a battle

11/8/2021

I just came home from getting my booster. Notice that I did not use the word ‘shot’. I wasn’t shot, nor was that the intention of the kind woman who administered the life-giving injection.
How easy it is for war metaphors to slip into our speech without notice. Recently, a friend who is going through cancer treatments wrote that she was not in a battle with cancer!
Rather she was on a journey and treating cancer was part of the current path she was on.
Life is a journey, not a battle. Think about that! On a journey we experience ups and downs, but we have choices and our goal is always positive. A battle implies war, the goal negative. My friends comment encourages me to renew my commitment to avoid those war metaphors.

Remembering the saints in our lives

11/6/2021

You may have noticed a larger than usual time gap between my last post and this one. I haven’t taken a hiatus from writing. In fact I’ve been busy writing vignettes of the seven church members who died since the beginning of the pandemic when we stopped having in-person memorials services. Tomorrow I will share these at our All Saints Sunday Service.
    I’ve loved putting together recollections from family members and friends, snippets from published obituaries, and memories of my own (for I was privileged to know each person). Each died during covid, but not from covid. Six were in their nineties, the oldest being 99, the youngest, 79; four were men, three women.
   One challenge was to keep each vignette to between 350 and 400 words. The other challenge was to select three words that succinctly described each of these saints.
Here is the array of words that came forth: dependable, organized, ‘a good man’, kind, gentle, full of integrity, optimistic, determined, grateful, unfazed, forward-thinking, positive, loyal, honest, a gentleman, sense of humor, optimistic, fun-loving, 100% dedicated, reliable, loyal.
   I trust some of these apply to people you know, and yes, even to you.

Gratitude among difficult news

10/26/2021

“Okay, what are you grateful for on this rainy day?” Self asks Self. Here is my list: good sleep, justice workers, Margo at Panera, course participants, THIS DAY, statio*, and the SSJE garden. In my 2021 gratitude book , these are numbers 2049-2055. I always write 7. If you do the math you’ll see that I miss some days altogether, but I never write just 1 or 2 or 3, always 7. You see, coming up with 3 is easy, whereas coming up with 7 pushes me and encourages me to be positive about situations that are really awful.
Right now I’m struggle with that. I just heard that a friend has esophageal cancer. Oh, I can come with some gratitudes that can arise from her condition, but right now they feel pretty pathetic, and definitely don’t outweigh the prognosis. I’m working on it, but no way does cancer trump the gratitude that is life.
* Satio is being where you are supposed to be before you need to go there. Joan Chittister, in The Monastic Heart.

Start everything with gratitude!

10/23/2021

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you undoubted know that I am big on expressing gratitude. My mom started her day with her four: her family and friends, health, faith, and life. She knew how to sum it up,; to be sure, gratitude was at the forefront of what she did each day. I try to do the same.
From time to time we all can find ourselves down or depressed, and some people seem to have a more negative disposition than others. And then, the pandemic has brought all of us new challenges to how we respond to what going on. Gratitude doesn’t always become our default position.
In a recent group discussion I participated, two of us started by sharing something positive, three with something negative. I’m not belittling the tough stuff that’s going on with people; I’m just observing. I know and believe that the way we start the day, a conversation, or an activity affects our attitude toward it, and even the outcome.

Writing routine--time and space

10/20/2021

The sole writing teacher I ever had taught only five things. He said that to be a writer five practices were necessary: (1) Write in the same place every day; (2) Write at the same time every day; (3) Write the same amount of time every day; (4) If the words do not flow, sit there and stare at the paper or screen till the designated period of time is over, then return the next day to try again; and (5) Never, ever, let anybody read what you have written until it’s finished, otherwise the bubbles will go off the champagne.

Joan Chittister, prolific spiritual writer, passes on these principles from her writing teacher. I resonate with this practical advice, not just for my writing but for other aspects of my life. Create daily order of time, space , and persona commitment so that creativity can flow. Chittister goes on to say that this advice has also affected her spiritual life. Of course. Whatever is of value to us needs the structure of time, space, and personal commitment to ground us. Without it, we wildly fly about reacting impulsively to the latest random happening that comes our way. visionviewpoint@benetvision.org

October 18th, 2021

10/18/2021

Where to begin? Ah, baseball.
A week ago I flew home from Italy, arriving in Boston in time to see the lights of Fenway Park as the bus passed by and hear the fans cheering the Red Sox to a playoff win. A week later they are tied 1-1 with the Astros for the American League Championship. On Wednesday I’ll be at the 5th game of the series with my son and daughter-in-law. It could be the clincher to send the Sox onto the World Series.
Memories of my Brooklyn Dodger childhood and that 1955 championship win! We are honoring them in our home today.